Invoice document (albar n) for falconry expenses.

Small folio (218 x 302 mm). Catalan manuscript on cotton paper. 1 p., folded lengthwise into two columns. Stored in custom-made purple half morocco case. An account of expenses incurred for the maintenance of the royal falcons of King Jaime III of Mallorca: "Aquastas s n les masions fetas per los falcons del senyor rey. Primerament, donam a 1 hom quils an aspiar, 3 s. 6. tem, per altra dia quils an traura, 20 s. tem, donam a 1 fadr ab 1a b stia qui port la ex rsia, 2 s. tem, donam a 2 h mons qui anaren ab n s con anam traura los falcons, 4 s. tem, despenguem a vianda, 13 s. 2. tem, costaren 2 pols que donam a manjar als falcons antra 2es vaguadas, 22 d. tem, donam a 1 hom qui port als falcons a la ciutat, 5 s. tem, cost 1a b stia en qu an cavalcant lo batla con an traura los falcons, 1 s. 6. tem, cost 1a senalla an qu vangueran los falcons, 7 d. Suma per totas las ditas masions, 51 s. 7 d.". - The document is not dated. A note in the margin, much later, indicates the year 1337, which could be the year the account was written. - Written in Mallorcan, a dialectal variant of Catalan, in a scribal hand, on cotton paper manufactured in Mallorca by Arab paper makers. Under Muslim rule from 903 until 1229, Mallorca ("Mayurqa") had formed one of the Eastern Islands of al-Andalus ("al-jaza'ir al-sharqiya li-l-andalus"). The art of papermaking, long mastered by the Arabs, had reached the southern Spain only in the 12th century through the Muslim conquest, at a time when most of western Europe still favoured vellum as a writing material. The Arab tradition of papermaking is still evident in this early 14th century insular specimen. - An extraordinarily rare survival in excellent state of preservation.